Friday, January 23

Jake and I went to the Westwood Plaza Theatre to see this movie. Bonus: it was at 6:15 so we had supper there.

The movie was quite good. It's been a while since I've read the books, but I think it followed the story pretty well. Much like in the Harry Potter series, they have broken the last book up into two movies. I was wondering how they were going to pull it off, but I was fairly satisfied with how this one ended.

Saturday, January 17

I was kind of excited when I heard they were making a movie out of this book because I really, really liked it. On the other hand, how often is it that the movies made from books are a disappointment? Pretty often.

That said, the movie started off pretty slow, so I was a little worried at the beginning, but once the horns popped out, things got interesting. Overall both Brian and I liked it, but could it have been better? Definitely.

Tuesday, January 13

The investment property spruce-ups are going well. We finished painting the living room, dining room and stairwell on Saturday afternoon. This leaves the kitchen, which is going to be a chore because we're also painting the cabinets. There are some other things to do, of course, but they are minor in comparison to the kitchen project. I'm hoping to wrap things up by the end of February so we can get the house on the market (the sooner the better, really). That night, the two of us (Jake was in NY visiting his cousins) went to a party at my brother's house, so at least I didn't have to cook after working all afternoon.

Sunday, January 4

I took a couple of days off over the holidays and I feel like I'm sufficiently well-rested, caught-up, and ready to get back to work. In fact, when I first woke up this morning, I thought it was Monday and I wasn't even disappointed.

I haven't been doing much in the way of anything lately, so I need to kick things into high gear starting tomorrow. I mean, I'm caught up on housework and such, but there are always other things that could be done. And I need to start exercising again. I took a couple week break over the holidays, but that is about to end.

We finished the holiday break on a social note. On Friday night, we went to my in-laws to celebrate our niece's and my father-in-law's birthdays. And, last night, we went out to eat at Franklin Street Bar & Grill with Judy and her new-ish boyfriend (who we got to meet for the first time).

Nothing fun is planned for today. We're supposed to paint at our rental property this afternoon, otherwise I'm going to continue to not over-exert myself.

Saturday, January 3

I'm a little bit late on my year in review, but I was really busy napping on my days off over Christmas, so cut me a break! I haven't been this caught up on sleep since we went on vacation last summer (or maybe ever).

What a busy year this was! Between anniversaries, confirmations, graduations, showers, and weddings--not to mention the usual family get-togethers, holidays, birthdays and work--this was a busy year. From April to October, I don't think we had a free weekend (which probably explains why we barely got to ride our bikes this year).

All of the previously mentioned events have been blogged about, so I won't rehash them here. One thing that I don't think I've mentioned is work. We hired for some key positions and that really helped the company to grow in 2014. We're hoping/planning to do the same this year.

In entertainment news, I started watching Orange is the New Black. Love that show! Thanks to my new knitting hobby, I didn't do as much reading this year as I normally do (though I did watch plenty of tv/movies because I can knit while doing that). But I did read a couple of really good books, Gone Girl, being my favorite. I'm looking forward to seeing the movie, too. As for movies, I can't get Out of the Furnace out of my head, so I guess that has to be my favorite. The music front was kind of meh this year. Sure, it had the new Foo Fighters release. Surprisingly, I haven't listened to it much, but I do really like the first single. And, I got turned on to Royal Blood and rather like them. Conveniently, both bands are touring together in the summer and we have tickets! That is going to be a fun show, but I don't want to wish my summer away before winter is even over.

I feel like 2015 is going to be a good year. We don't have all of the milestones to celebrate this year, so that will cut down on our activity level. Work is moving in the right direction. And if we can sell our rental property, we should be able to buy a plot of land, which would make me fantastically happy.